1. Technical Field
The present invention is directed toward a hand-held user communication terminal, and more particularly toward an improved antenna for a satellite telephone.
2. Background Art
Antennas are, of course, an important component of any wireless communication device. For example, the quality of the signal received by telephones, whether cordless or cellular, is largely dependent on the quality of the antenna used with the telephone.
With the ever growing use of satellite telephones, which communicate not via a ground based unit a few feet or a few miles away but via a satellite many miles overhead in Earth orbit, the importance of the antenna, and the quality demands made of the antenna, have increased significantly.
Given the space-based infrastructure required for satellite systems, and the requirement that the system communicate with individual user units through the air over significantly greater distances than cellular systems, the cost of satellite systems may be expected to be greater than the cost of conventional land-wire, or even cellular, systems. However, while there are some obvious advantages of satellite telephones (e.g., mobile communication at even remote locations), the acceptability of satellite telephones will be greatly inhibited, particularly in view of cost, if the communication signals (e.g., sound qualities) are poor. The simple fact is that few potential users would be willing to pay significantly more for satellite telephones if the quality of the transmitted sound is poor. Of course, poor communication signals could also limit acceptability of the system among potential customers who wish to communicate data between computers, as poor quality of the communication signal could result in unacceptable unreliability of the transmitted data. Moreover, any such limited acceptability would be self-defeating, as it would limit the users, which in turn would keep costs high (by keeping down the number of users among which fixed costs could be spread) which would also limit acceptability.
Portability is, of course, also a key element in gaining widespread acceptability for satellite systems. Few users are willing to use such systems if their "mobile" unit must be carried in a suitcase. Self-contained hand-held mobile units are therefore a key element in gaining widespread use of the satellite systems. Such small units can come at a price, however, including the previously discussed undesirable degradation in communication signal due to the necessity that the antennas used with small units themselves be small, notwithstanding the need to handle communication signals which must be transmitted over great distances.
In short, it is extremely important, that the antennas used with satellite telephones not only be conveniently usable, but that they provide optimum functioning for the communication device.
One attempt at developing an antenna for hand-held satellite telephones is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,559,522. That structure provides an antenna which has an angled pivot in an attempt to orient the antenna vertically when in use. While that antenna structure may work adequately when the telephone is held in a small range of positions common in typical hand-held individual use, it is not adapted to provide ideal operation in all uses.
The present invention is directed toward overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above.